Unilever, a global consumer goods company, has released its full-year results for 2023. The company’s turnover for the year amounted to €59.6 billion, representing a slight decline of 0.8% compared to the previous year. Operating profit reached €9.8 billion, experiencing a more significant decrease of 9.3% year-on-year.
However, Unilever reported a rise in underlying sales of approximately 5% in Q4, meeting analysts’ average forecast.
As for the specific business, Beauty & Wellbeing achieved a turnover of €12.5 billion in 2023, marking a 1.8% increase year-on-year, while Personal Care recorded a turnover of €13.8 billion in 2023, reflecting a 1.4% growth.
Within the Beauty & Wellbeing segment, underlying sales surged by 8.3%, fueled by robust volume growth of 4.4%. Notably, Prestige Beauty and Health & Wellbeing, which now account for a quarter of Beauty & Wellbeing’s turnover, continued to grow at a double-digit rate. Personal Care also experienced impressive underlying sales growth of 8.9%, with 3.2% attributed to volume and 5.5% to price. This was primarily driven by the strong sales performance of Deodorants.
Unilever’s emerging markets, which account for 58% of the group’s turnover, demonstrated solid growth in underlying sales of 8.5%. This growth was divided into 1.6% from volume and 6.9% from price. Latin America, Turkey, and Africa delivered double-digit growth, while India exhibited mid-single-digit growth driven by volume. However, the market recovery in China remained slower than expected, resulting in low-single-digit growth. Additionally, sales in South East Asia were impacted by a decline in Indonesia due to consumer aversion to multinational brands amid the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.
In developed markets, which make up 42% of Unilever’s turnover, underlying sales grew by 4.8% throughout the year. This growth was mainly driven by a 6.7% increase in price, partially offset by a volume decline of 1.8%. North America showcased strong growth of 5.8%, with volume accounting for 2.5% and price for 3.3%. Notably, Prestige Beauty and Health & Wellbeing in North America sustained double-digit underlying sales growth. Volume growth in North America accelerated steadily throughout the year, reaching 6.3% in the fourth quarter. In Europe, underlying sales growth amounted to 4.1%, driven by a significant price increase of 12.8%, reflecting the higher exposure of the region to categories with notable cost inflation. However, there was a volume decline of 7.7% in Europe.
Unilever’s CEO acknowledged the improving financial performance, highlighting the return to volume growth and the rebuilding of margins. However, the CEO expressed disappointment with the company’s overall competitiveness and emphasized the need for improvement. Unilever has implemented a Growth Action Plan with three key priorities: delivering higher-quality growth, increasing productivity and simplicity, and adopting a strong performance focus. The new leadership team has swiftly embedded the action plan, increasing investment in the company’s 30 Power Brands, accelerating portfolio transformation, and implementing clear and ambitious targets across the organization.
